


Entry #80+

by TheHistoryBuff



Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Internal Monologue, Limbo, Post-Canon, Purgatory, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:40:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27220618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHistoryBuff/pseuds/TheHistoryBuff
Summary: Jay was shot, and his body was spirited away by That Thing. But despite seeing it once before killing Alex, Tim never recovered Jay's body. What happened to him? Where IS Jay?
Kudos: 15





	1. Jay 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic I've published. I wanted to write something that was canon compliment and yet could still bridge the gap for a Jay Lives AU. Mostly written for a friend of mine who draws a lot of Jay/Tim art, though this is not a ship fic. Kind of inner monolog heavy, so I hope it doesn't get too dull. Please enjoy!

Jay felt the life leaving his body. He had been through so much, he could make it. He just needed a bit more time. The bullet had hit something major. Probably his liver, Jay wasn't sure. Anatomy wasn't something he thought he needed to know much. It wasn't going to help him anyway, leaned up against the wall, blood seeping into his clothing. If he can just stop the bleeding and get his phone to call for help...

But then he saw it. The reaper, come to take it's due. That Thing. Always capitalized. It was close, closer than he'd ever been outside of his ill fated attempt to tackle it. He never did recover that memory.

Jay had taken to only looking at it through his viewfinder. He wasn't really clear what the medical realities of what was undoubtedly some form of radiation sickness he experienced from exposure to That Thing, but like the Chernobyl reactor, looking directly at it had always seemed like a bad idea. Maybe that had started just as a way to always make sure to document it, but even now, bleeding out, it felt imperative to not observe it unfiltered. It tilted it's head, almost in confusion. This close, Jay could see that what had looked like a suit and tie was textured like skin. The thing wasn't wearing clothes, it had made itself look like clothes. The next instant one of its appendages thrust out and grabbed him. He dropped the camera and the world went dark.


	2. Jay 2

Jay awoke under a street lamp. There was a puddle of blood staining the asphalt of the road under the light, but everything else was pitch black. He looked at his wound. The bleeding had stopped. It looked pretty nasty, and it looked like it hadn't healed, but it wasn't bleeding anymore, so at least that was a blessing. Taking in his surroundings, Jay noticed that his camera was missing. That could be a death sentence, but it was something he would have to worry about later. He still had his phone. Pulling it out of his pocket, he noticed the time, 6:24 PM. It was kinda early for it to be this dark. There was no signal, and it was almost out of battery. Better put it on dim, Jay thought, switching it over to power saver mode. Despite the lack of signal, he did try calling. First Tim, then 911. No dice.

The pain was...well not subsided, but numbed. Jay knew that this bullet wound hurt like a motherfucker, but the actual discomfort felt had dulled. It was unsettling, much like this place. Cautiously, he got up. Looking around, he could see the street continue on for a while, and the grass beyond the streetlamp, but could see only void beyond. Unsteadily, Jay picked a direction and started walking. Eventually the road must lead somewhere.

The world shifted with a jolt, as if gravity had subtly and slightly changed direction. It was no longer night. It was day, and Jay was in the tunnel at Rosswood. "Shit," Jay muttered under his breath. He was location hopping. He always hated this, dealing with the impossible spaces that That Thing seemed to create. Picking up the pace, Jay hobbled through the tunnel towards the light only to find himself once again shifting slightly and falling on the ground, this time in Tim's old room at the hospital. He could feel the tickle in the back of his throat beginning to form, though if it was from the mold or whatever radiation That Thing emitted, Jay wasn't sure. Pushing himself up from his knees, Jay looked at the light and greenery outside the broken window. He reasoned that just leaving through the door would lead to another shift, but maybe he could break out if he left by the window? Looking out, Jay could see the floor littered with glass and rocks. Perhaps if he hadn't just been shot in the abdomen, it might have been possible, but trying to climb over that shoulder high wall would probably be very dangerous right now. The door it would have to be.

Now Jay was confused. He'd never been brought here by the teleporting bullshit. Leaving the doorway from Tim's old hospital room, Jay entered the hotel room he stayed at that adjoined Jessica's. The clock on the bedside table informed him that it was 11:52 PM. That late? Jay pulled out his phone. The time still said 6:24 PM. Wait, it had said that when he first checked it. More than a minute had passed, surely. Jay sat down on the bed, looking at both the clock and phone, and counted out. Ten seconds. Thirty seconds. Forty five seconds, ok, the one of them should have ticked over by now. A full minute passed by his own counting, but both timepieces continued to remain static. "I guess you broke time, thanks for that." It was silly, but as soon has he said it it was obvious. This wasn't the first time that time itself had been broken by That Thing. 

Jay checked on his bulletwound again. Still not bleeding, still not in the unbearable pain he knew he should be feeling. Was he just dead now? Jay had never been particularly religious, or at least as non-religious as one can be growing up in Alabama. He had never really considered what would happen when he died. It had always been a problem for future him to worry about. Even when getting into really stupid shit, Jay had never really considered that he'd die. Laying back on the bed with his feet on the ground, Jay thought about just how wild this whole experience had been. Maybe I should just rest here for a while, he thought.


	3. Tim 1

Tim had moved on. The days passed to weeks, then months. Jessica was doing ok. He was fine. Everything was fine. After uploading his 'self defense' against Alex to Jay's YouTube channel, he could never really consider the joint channel to be his own, he had put one last entry up and moved on. Moved away from Northport and Tuscaloosa, got a job at a lumber mill. A good paying union job too, wouldn't have gotten it if three of the old hands weren't retiring that year. He even made some new acquaintances. Tim hesitated to call them friends, he had a bad track record with friends. Andre and Sammy were people to shoot the shit with on break and go bowling with every other Wednesday. He had gotten his medication. He had deleted his video editing software. He couldn't take it upon himself to throw out Jay's old camera. It had actually broken not long after his last upload, damn thing had been through hell and back. Try as he might, there were some things that he just couldn't let slip by.

The big thing he thought about was, where were Jay and Brian's bodies. He'd seen them briefly, while being teleported around, Jay in his house, Brian in what he presumed was Alex's old dorm. But all the people who had died had been taken. Spirited away by That Thing. Now he was sure that Alex was dead. He had made sure of that. And he'd seen Brian's fall. And Jay's wound in that footage looked pretty severe. Surely all three of them had long since died. But what did That Thing need with their bodies? Why didn't he have a body to return to Jay's parents? He hadn't tried contacting Jay's parents. They would probably remain ignorant of the whole affair unless they suddenly gained an interest in YouTube documentaries. What would he tell them? What could he prove? The cops were convinced that the whole YouTube Channel was just a student project, and he hoped the rest of the world was too. Far too many questions he couldn't answer otherwise.

And so despite the lingering uncertainties, Tim was content to just let time slip by. He had never really had the opportunity to bloom, though there was a time when he thought he might have turned his life around. Between making his first friend, Brian, and losing his last friend, Jay. Now what was there? A 9-5 and biweekly bowling. At least he had time to teach himself the Banjo.

He had thought that seeing the investigation to it’s finish would bring closure. That he could lay Jay to rest symbolically by ending his channel and closing the mystery. But his mind continued to dwell. To hope beyond all hope that somehow his friends were out there. And if they were, perhaps they could be brought back. Even if only as something to be buried.


	4. Jay 3

Jay woke up in the cramped maintenance tunnel. His last memories were lying down in his hotel room. Instinctively he reached around for his camera to check the footage, only remember that he didn’t have it. Surely That Thing must have shown up, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember what happened. The tunnel was pitch black, so Jay pulled out his phone to shine a light. The phone still had the same time and same battery, but pulling it up, Jay found the camera app open, and a new video had been recorded. Huh, he thought. I guess this works.

He could watch the footage later, for now he needed to get out of the filthy, cramped, and probably asbestos-filled tunnel. Shining his light in front of him, Jay crawled forward until the tiny corridor took a turn and the world shifted. He was now back in Brian’s old house. Where Tim had tackled him all those years ago. Ugh, this place, he thought. Jay sat down on the ruined, tattered sofa and pulled up the video. It wasn’t very long. I showed That Thing in the hotel room. The footage showed Jay rolling around to the other side of the bed to try and escape, grunting in the process. He could only imagine that kind of motion with his bullet wound wouldn’t be pleasant, even in it’s dulled state. The pixely, distorted and low quality footage showed him running through the halls of the hotel before winding up in the woods, back at the tunnel, and finally in the maintenance tunnel where he had just woken. 

The footage was nothing too special. He had reviewed hours just like it. Still, it gave him comfort to know that he hadn’t done anything questionable. Like try and tackle it again. Sitting in the dark of Brian’s living room, Jay wondered if there might be some food here he could take. Maybe an old can of tuna or something Brian had left in the cabinet. He wasn’t really hungry, but his last real meal had been a complimentary bagel and jam from the hotel he had stayed at after splitting with Tim. And his last bit of any food was a bit of beef jerky and peanuts he had eaten overlooking benedict hall while uploading Entry #79. When he got back, he would have to see if he could get this cell phone footage into his laptop. Entry #80 would have to be mostly a text explanation or maybe him talking to the camera. Maybe Tim would upload an entry 80 before he got back.

Jay had considered, in his anger, changing the password to lock Tim out of the Marble Hornets channel. Despite the revelations of his actions however, it was clear to Jay that Tim had been active in his investigation into this shit. Maybe he was a bit harsh to judge Tim for hiding that tape. He really didn’t know what had come over him to come at Tim with the knife. Maybe it had been some manipulation by That Thing. Jay rummaged through Brian’s cupboards, not really finding much of anything.

He had never really considered how lucky he was to be investigating this shit the way he had been. Sure, it had been touch and go for a while, but he was at least in a better state than the hooded man. He had freed Jay from the zip ties. Gave him one final chance to not fuck this up, and he had pretty summarily failed. Jay wondered how the hooded man, whoever he was, had managed to survive this long without filming everything, living in abandoned shacks in the woods and stealing meds to get by. Someone strong, but broken.

Tim’s meds! That was it. So far the places he’d been had been places that That Thing had been seen. Even detached from reality, they still held the objects that had been in them when it had visited. If he could get to the instance in Tim’s house, there should be some meds stashed away somewhere. That would be essential to surviving this place, and maybe even escaping. Jay had no real way of controlling where he jumped to next, but he should start as soon as possible.


	5. Tim 2

It hadn’t been but five months since his last upload. With Thanksgiving approaching, his coworkers had been asking time off for the holiday. Andre would be going back to Mobile to his family. Sammy at least was from the area, but his family was flying in from South Carolina, so it would just be Tim alone. He hadn’t really seen his mother in years, and talking to her on the phone only brought back feelings of regret. To be so estranged from the only family he had wasn’t as big a problem two years ago. He had spent that Thanksgiving with Jay, splurging on Denny's. Then last year...well, last year Jay was suddenly not there to celebrate Thanksgiving, and it kinda just passed him by.

It had almost been a year since his death, and Tim still couldn’t move on. He barely knew the guy after all, what he was like when not obsessed with this whole affair. He had been more Brian’s friend before this whole thing started. But a year and a half of living with, and working with him had made Jay into something of family for Tim. Which made the sting of their falling out and his end all the more painful to consider. Jay could be a jerk, leaking his medical history to the world for starters, but Tim could be an asshole right back. Why couldn’t he have just shown Jay the tape? Surely if Jay felt as close to Tim as he had him, he would understand. And that last message that Tim never received all but proved it.

So why did he feel so responsible? If anyone was responsible it was Alex of course, or maybe even That Thing that had driven him so. That Thing that still sometimes stood just out of eyeshot. That Thing that he knew would only make things worse if he looked for it. It was still out there, there was no avoiding it, no killing it like he had killed Alex. Like he had killed Brian… But what if he didn’t go to seek it out. Instead, what if he took one final trip to Tuscaloosa, not falling into the obsession that had been Jay’s downfall, but to pay one last respect. Lay a flower in that filthy basement room in Benedict Hall. No one needs to know, and he needn’t antagonize That Thing with cameras. He wouldn’t linger, and promised himself to run at the first sign of trouble. That afternoon, Tim stopped by the office to fill out the paperwork to take time off. For the Holidays.


	6. Jay 4

Jay had been to many places in his random jumps. Most had been random places in the woods. Some had been familiar apartments or houses. Sometimes he would return to place several times. The Street Lamp. The Tunnel. The Hospital. He would make note of each location in his phone’s notepad app, but he never stayed long. Occasionally he would end up in a place he had never seen before. A cavern, a forest clearing with small stones in a circle, a clay house with thatched roof in the shadow of a large hill. These places had smaller defined space before he jumped again, they seemed almost ethereal. But they weren’t what he was looking for. Jay encountered That Thing a total of 17 times. He marked each time with a new phone video, but his encounters were never long. Just a lot of running through the endless forest locations that made up the bulk of the jumps. He was now sitting in the abandoned shack in Rosswood that the hooded man had made his home, resting.

Not that he was really getting all that tired. Physically he was still the same as he had been when he arrived. He never grew hungry or thirsty either, which only added to his suspicions that he was, in fact, dead. Whether he was a ghost or in hell, he wasn’t certain, but while he didn’t get physically tired, Jay was mentally exhausted. He had no way of knowing what time it was. How many days had passed. All the dates on the phone videos read the same day and time. November 21st, 2013, 6:24 PM. As far as his internal clock was concerned, it was still that day. Still 6:24 PM. Logically, he was certain that he had been here for a while. Then again, logic usually flew out the window when dealing with That Thing and it’s disregard for the laws of time and space.

Jay wondered if he had ever actually seen footage of That Thing at Tim’s house. It must have been there at some point. That Thing had evidently been following Tim since childhood, why wouldn’t have been there. Still, he had to get there eventually. After what could have been 5 minutes or a half hour, Jay got up and stepped out of the shack. The lurch was almost 45 degrees now, but he still managed to keep his footing. 

Looking around, it was another place he was unfamiliar with. Wait, it was familiar but...different. The hum of fluorescent lights shed light on a sterile room. Devoid of any markings of familiarity or friendliness. A bed, a wheeled tray, a small child sized desk and chair, a larger adult sized armchair, a closet. A clock on the wall that was stuck at 7:47. These were all new. But the layout, the high window, the location of the now closed door. This was Tim’s room at the hospital. Not as it was now, but as it had been then.

Jay stood in the empty room. The bed was so small, surely it must be from when he was first admitted here all those years ago. Jay was pretty sure that whatever medicine Tim had been taking back then wasn’t the same he was taking now, and probably wasn’t effective in combating That Thing. Still, maybe there was something here that he could use. Looking over at the small desk, Jay saw Tim’s homework. Apparently being admitted to a psychiatric ward didn’t get you out of doing homework. Tim’s math worksheet was filled out for the most part, but the margins and back were decorated with the familiar scribblings that had dominated Alex’s artistic output late in his Marble Hornets directorship. “Oh Tim…” Jay folded the paper up and stuck it in his jacket pocket. He needed something to tell himself it was real, and he was here. He considered taking some video footage, but decided to save what little memory was left on his phone for emergencies, if it even worked that way. He did take a photo though. 

There wasn’t much else in the room. He hadn’t suspected the doctors would store any medication in their patient’s room. Though Jay wondered if the instance was big enough to include more of the hospital, maybe he could find the place Tim had shown him where the pills were stored. Jay approached the door to the room and tried to open it. The handle didn’t budge. Locked. This was new. It also seemed dangerous, but didn’t Tim say they used to have to lock him in here? The door looked solid enough, trying to break it down was probably an exercise in futility. Looking around, Jay’s eyes turned towards the window. 

In its modern state, trying to climb out would have been difficult. Jay pushed the child’s bed up against the wall and climbed up on top. The window was latched, but thankfully not locked. He pushed it out, and it opened easy on hydraulics. A tight fit, but Jay could make it. Standing up on the ledge, he put his leg through, feeling around until his foot rested on the ledge outside. Then he pulled his other leg through. This contortion caused his wound to stretch and suddenly the pain that had been so absent went shooting through his body. Tears welled up in his eyes as he held onto the wall for support. It may have been a few seconds, it may have been an eternity, but the pain once again subsided, and Jay continued on his escape. Finally, both legs on the ledge, he grabbed on with his hands and dropped down. His feet never touched the ground.


	7. Tim 3

Tim checked into the hotel a little later than he had hoped. There was some major accident on 65 that had brought traffic to a crawl. By the time he rolled into the parking lot, it was past 8. Check in was relatively painless, but as soon as he opened the hotel room, his brain froze. They’d stayed in so many hotels, they must have stayed in this one at least once, but he’d made sure it wasn’t any that stood out. But even just looking at the place. The pristinely made bed, the overzealous radiator strip, the push in light fixtures for the lamps. Go to any dozen hotels and they all blend together. And the simple room itself has latched itself onto the part of Tim’s brain he was now trying to bury.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Ok Tim. It’s just a room, like any other. There had been countless nights where nothing had happened in a hotel. But, on the other hand, there had been plenty of memorable late night escapes from Hotels as well as, well, one notable rescue/kidnapping he had no concrete memory of participating in.

Perhaps hotels would never be the same again, but he had to step out of the hallway. The sound of a child running down the hallway brought him back to his senses. Looking down, he saw a 6 year old running ahead of a heavily pregnant woman and a man carrying perhaps one too many suitcases. A family trip. This no longer had to be the endless life of fight or flight responses that he had been trapped in. There was a world outside of his own head, and it went on ticking by every second. Looking once more into the hotel room, Tim stepped forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween!


	8. Jay 5

Jay lay on the bed of the Hotel Room. The river had been new, and having to go from falling, to swimming, to tumbling head over feet through the forest had been...unpleasant. His phone miraculously still worked, it had been kept relatively dry in his coat pocket, avoiding most of the water, though that half second of pause before it turned on was anxiety inducing. Jay picked up the remote and turned the TV on. Nothing but static of course, but the white noise was soothing. Always the shadows of humanity, but never any people themselves. He didn’t know why some things, like electricity, worked, while others like television didn’t. No signal could be coming in, but of course, the electricity had to come from somewhere. It didn’t really matter. This was something apart from reality, from time itself. Best not to dwell on it.

Jay had an inquisitive mind. Always had. When he was a kid, he would always take pens apart in class to see how they had been manufactured. He was a sucker for Unsolved Mysteries and the VHS tapes of Twin Peaks his father had made. But he had been investigating a real mystery for over four years now. It wasn’t nearly as exciting, but that curiosity had always been there, driving him onwards. But this place, this was too much. If he wasn’t actually dead, and he actually could escape from this place, Jay vowed to give it up. Even if there was a chance that Jessica could be found. Even if Alex showed up in the middle of the night to finish what he started, Jay was through.

After zoning out for an indeterminate and irrelevant amount of time, he still couldn’t really sleep in this place, Jay turned off the tv and sat himself up. He put his phone safely in his jacket pocket and zipped it up. Just in case. Looking around, he briefly considered taking his laptop, but there wasn’t really anything to do with it without the internet. And so, Jay opened the door.


	9. Jay 6

And just like that, he was there. Tim’s home. The place he had last seen Tim, under...regrettable circumstances. Someone had left papers scattered about, marked with the scribbles that Alex would mark up. Looking closely, Jay could see that some blood had been spilt on some of the papers next to the kitchen counter. Ominous. His first instinct is to check for the tape in the living room, but there was no time. If That Thing showed up, and he had to run, there was no guarantee that Jay would ever get back here again. Besides, he’d already seen it.

Instead, Jay went to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet revealed a dozen empty pill bottles. Looks like this instance is from after the Hooded Man broke in. Jay looked again, top shelves, bottom shelves. There had to be something. He hadn’t appreciated Tim force feeding him one of his pills before, but there was a difference between that and deciding to take one for himself. Jay swore that if he could just find one, just one, he would take Tim’s advice and seek out professional help after escaping from this hell. If that was even possible.

Frustrated, Jay slammed the cabinet door shut. No amount of searching could produce something that didn’t exist. He slumped against the wall opposite to the toilet, slowing his descent into a sitting position on the floor. Ugh. He sighed, head in hands. This was his whole plan? Tim was right, he was terrible at planning things out. He deserved all the suffering and loneliness this limbo brought. If only he’d listened to Tim. If only he’d been able to save Jessica. If only he’d given up on his foolhardy investigation the first time he thought of quitting. But no. Now he was here. “Stuck in a loop of unhappiness.” God, what stupid lines Alex always came up with. Why was he thinking about this now. Jay rubbed his eyes and let them rest on the floor by his sides. He stared absently at the toilet. 

Hang on, what’s this? Behind the toilet on the floor. A pill bottle. It must have been knocked there at some point. Jay flipped over to a crawl and reached under the dusty back of the toilet bowl. Grabbing the bottle, he quickly pulled it back, rattled it, and flipped it over to check the back. Sure enough, there were two large white tablets inside. Perfect! Jay gave a silent thanks to whatever god might be able to hear him in this accursed place. 

It was at that moment that That Thing appeared in the hallway outside the bathroom door. Still on the floor, Jay backed up frantically, his back quickly hitting the outside walls of the tub. It was as close, if not closer than it had been when he was shot. Without eyes, it’s blank face was boring into his soul. Jay closed his eyes and fumbled with the pill bottle. He got it open, and the two pills fell into the palm of his hand. He opened his mouth, brought his hand to his lips, and swallowed.


	10. Tim 4

The college where this whole thing went down was actually kind of out of the way. Tim pulled into the empty visitor’s parking lot. A fair number of the old buildings had been demolished since he was last here, and he could see the new, much smaller campus was coming up nicely. Since it was Thanksgiving break the place was deserted except for a few cars in the admin lot. It did not take long to find Benedict Hall. Fortunately it was still standing. A sign with the words NO TRESPASSING was now hanging from the doorknob. Looks like the school had finally caught on to some of what had happened here.

Tim didn’t want to mess around with climbing through sewers again if he could help it. A quick search uncovered a basement window that had been broken, and poorly boarded up from inside. A few well placed kicks later, and the plywood gave way to a dusty art room. There was a desk not too far from the window, so Tim slipped off his bag and slid into the open window. He felt around with his foot and dragged the desk close enough to get a good standing purchase on it before pulling himself in the rest of the way. He was careful, but nearly cut himself on the broken glass pulling his bag in after him. Fortunately, it was just a scratch.

The building had been pretty severely gutted since he was last there. The few desks that were left had been put in the basement. In rooms, the hallway, just generally all over the basement. It wasn’t hard, however, to move a few out of the way to make a clear path. Tim knew where he had to go, and it wasn’t that far. Before he knew it, he was there.

Tim opened the door. The room was empty, as it had been a year ago. The small bloodstain on the floor hadn’t been cleaned. Presumably the much larger bloodstain upstairs had been cleaned, but this one didn’t seem to have warranted that much attention. Tim unstrapped his bag from his shoulders once more and set it on the ground, unzipped it, and pulled out a bouquet of flowers. He held it in his hands for a moment before gingerly setting it down next to the blood stain.

“Hey Jay. Uh, so, this was supposed to be a wreath, but it was more expensive than I thought it would be.” Tim looked down at the bloodstain. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Just so you know, Jessica is alive and well. I, uh, I’m sorry I kept that from you.” Another pause. “I’m doing well. I have a new job now. Oh yeah! Alex is dead, so...that’s a thing I guess.” Tim collected his thoughts once more. “You know, I’m sorry I-”

Suddenly, there was the flash of a shadow against the wall, and the world seemed to lurch.


	11. Jay 7

Jay opened his eyes to find himself in a hospital bed. The beep of machines and the odd itch of an IV in his arm became apparent through a fog of painkillers. He blinked. This place was new. Looking around he saw Tim curled up on a sofa built into a nook under the window. “Tim!?” Jay didn’t realize just how dry his mouth was he was until he opened it to speak. On the tray table next to his bed, he saw a small slice of pumpkin pie on a Styrofoam plate with a plastic fork sticking out of it. Next to the plate, he noticed the remote/call button and gave it a press.

It took a minute for someone to respond, but a nurse knocked on the door and entered.

“Ah you’re awake. I’ll get the doctor.” 

“Wait,” Jay held up a weak hand. “What happened?”

The nurse paused before giving Jay a tired smile. “Your friend brought you in. Said you had been in an accidental shooting. Good thing he got here when he did too. Saved your life. You’re lucky to have such a good friend.” He nodded over at Tim, and Jay followed his gaze. Jay kept his eyes on Tim and the nurse slipped away, presumably to fetch the doctor. 

Jay looked around again. The remote to the tv was built into the call button and bed position remote, so he turned it on. The local news blasted on a bit too loudly than he was anticipating, and Jay mashed the volume down as quickly as he could. 

Tim shifted a bit and opened his blurry eyes to look at Jay. “Jay?”

Jay turned the tv off and looked over to his friend. “Tim.”

“Jay!” Tim unfolded himself from his rest and rushed over to the bed. “Thank god! Oh Jay!” He leans over and gives his friend a careful but enthusiastic hug. “You were dead. I was...You’re not....”

Jay, having been taken by surprise, finally brought his arms down around his friend. “I’m fine Tim. I’ll be fine. Alex though, he got away. Did you run into him?” 

Tim peeled himself away from his friend and took a deep breath. “Jay....it’s been a year. Alex is dead.” 

Jay blinked. A year. Was that really how long it had been? “Uh, can you uh, bring my phone please? It should be in my jacket pocket.” 

“Huh? Uh, yeah sure.” Tim walked over to the chair where Jay’s clothes had been draped. He reached into the pocket and pulled out the phone, along with a folded up piece of paper decorated with familiar scribbles. He placed this back in the pocket, and brought the phone over to Jay.

“Thanks.” Jay turned on the phone and looked at the date. November 23rd, 2014. 3:29 PM. Tears started to form in the corners of his eyes and he brought the back of his hand up to his mouth. “It’s true...I’m alive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Basically, I wanted to explore the teleporting locations in more detail. In this headcanon, the operator doesn't so much live in the real world as it pulls a section of space out of reality and puts it in his. The idea being that all the teleporting is to areas that the operator has appeared in before. There are a few new locations referenced, I wanted to hint a bit at the idea that this thing had been around for a very long time, but not really go into too much detail. I hope you will allow me such testing of the waters. 
> 
> If you want to imagine that these two end up together afterwards, you are my welcome guest, though it is outside of the scope of my interest. As I said in the beginning, I wanted a way to have a Jay Lives AU while keeping the canon consistent with the original web production, though not with the comics I understand.
> 
> I do have another fic in the works, though that will take considerably more effort and time to write. I will, however, try my best to improve and surpass this one in quality. Until then, thank you once again for reading.


End file.
